GUANGZHOU, China — It is as startling as if Detroit or Los
Angeles restricted car ownership.
The municipal government of Guangzhou, a sprawling
metropolis that is one of China’s biggest auto manufacturing centers,
introduced license plate auctions and lotteries last week that will roughly
halve the number of new cars on the streets.
The crackdown by China’s third-largest city is the most
restrictive in a series of moves by big Chinese cities that are putting
quality-of-life issues ahead of short-term economic growth, something the
central government has struggled to do on a national scale.